Trial pits co-defendants against each other in shotgun slaying of sisters
As Robert Brown headed to bed in the early hours of a hot September morning, his common-law wife and her sister stayed in the living room.
Melodie Robb had left the front door open to let more air into their home on Gross Street in McKeesport as she and sister Kimberly Lesko watched television, Mr. Brown told jurors Tuesday in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court.
Around 3 a.m., Mr. Brown awoke with a start, hearing a banging sound, then a sigh from Ms. Robb.
He got up to tell her to come to bed, then heard two unfamiliar voices. One said, “Where did it go?” The other said something like, “It’s time to stack ‘em up, or rack ‘em up,” he recalled. Next came two double-tap sounds. “That’s when I realized they were gunshots.”
Mr. Brown’s knees got weak and his stomach twisted as he retreated into the darkness of the couple’s bedroom, trying to find his cell phone to call 911.
“I listened and listened,” he said. “It was deadly quiet.”
He went downstairs after he heard the sound of someone slipping on the gravel in his driveway.
In his living room, he found Ms. Lesko on the couch, with blood coming out of her ear and mouth. Ms. Robbwas on the loveseat.
“I touched her on the forehead. I kissed her goodbye.”
Mr. Brown was the first prosecution witness in the opening day of trial for Kylee Lankford, 20, of Monroeville before Common Pleas Judge Alexander P. Bicket.
Mr. Lankford is charged with two counts of criminal homicide and related counts in the Sept. 1 shootings. A codefendant in the case, Miras M. Kelly II, is expected to testify against him in exchange for a plea offer by the prosecution.
For about 90 minutes, Mr. Brown recounted for the jurors what happened that night.
As he was on the phone with 911, he testified that he remembered that their family friend, Mark Jordan, had been staying with the couple and was asleep in a back room on the first floor.
“I heard him snoring,” Mr. Brown said. “I felt relieved, thinking he was unharmed.”
WhenMr. Brown got to his friend, though, he found that he’dbeen shot in the face, too.
Mr. Jordan, who testified Tuesday that he was shot three times — in the face, shoulder and neck — survived. He told the jury that he thought he’d dreamed he was struck in the face.
“When I woke up and sat up, I went to move my head and neck, and it hurt,” Mr. Jordan said. “I realized it wasn’t a dream.”
During cross-examination by Ralph Karsh, who represents Mr. Lankford, Mr. Jordan said he initially thought he’d been struck by one of Ms. Lesko’s sons, who had been violent with her in the past.
The day before the shooting, she was treated at a hospital for a knife wound that Mr. Brown told police he believed wascaused by that son.
However, Mr. Brown clarified that neither voice he heard right before the gunshot was Ms. Lesko’s son.
Earlier, during opening statements, Assistant District Attorney Brian Catanzarite told the jurors that there is no forensic evidence from inside the house — such as DNA or fingerprints — linking Mr. Lankfordto the crime.
But he continued, “We have the people involved. They’re going to tell you what Mr. Lankford did. They’re going to tell you what they did.”
According to the prosecution, Mr. Lankford, Mr. Kelly and another man, Cameron Kirk, who lived nearby, had walked to a gas station to buy snacks and cigars that morning, and when they passed the house on Gross Street, noticed the front door was open.
Mr. Lankford, 20, said he needed money and wanted to do a robbery, and he and Mr. Kelly, 20, chose that house, Mr. Catanzarite said.
Mr. Kirk, the prosecutor continued, said he didn’t want to be involved, gave a gun he had been carrying to Mr. Kelly and left.
After Mr. Kelly and Mr. Lankford entered the house, Mr. Catanzarite said, Mr. Lankford headed to the back where Mr. Jordan had been sleeping. He shot him in the face and then returned to the living room where the women were.
Mr. Lankford took the gun from Mr. Kelly because his had jammed, and then he shot both Ms. Robb and Ms. Lesko in the face, Mr. Catanzarite said.
Mr. Kelly, who is expected to testify later in the trial, told police that Mr. Lankford shot all three people.
“He will tell you exactly what happened,” the prosecutor said. “He didn’t fire a shot. He didn’t expect anybody to be murdered.”
Mr. Kirk, who has been offered immunity, also will testify. But Mr. Karsh told the jurors in his opening they should look at the prosecution’s key witnesses with skepticism. “The evidence you hear in this case comes from people who either are charged or should have been charged.”